Morcombe case person of interest named

A national television show has named a convicted pedophile as a person of interest
in the abduction and presumed murder of Sunshine Coast teenager Daniel Morcombe,
just hours before a $1 million reward for information expires.

The Seven Network's Sunday Night program said the named man was on the Sunshine
Coast at the time Daniel went missing.
Daniel Morcombe disappeared on Sunday, December 7, 2003, while waiting to catch a
bus on the Nambour Connection Road near the Kiel Mountain Road overpass, north of
Brisbane.
The man named in the program was jailed in 1995 for abducting and sexually
assaulting a Queensland boy.
He was released on November 7, 2003 - a month before Daniel went missing - and was
without supervision because of "a legal blunder", the program said.
The man was bailed two weeks later after he was involved in a high speed police
chase in his light blue Holden Commodore, which was impounded.
On December 5, two days before Daniel's abduction, the man allegedly stole a car
from Goodna, west of Brisbane, and dumped it seven kilometres from where Daniel was
last seen. The program said the man then acquired another vehicle similar to his own
Commodore and that had NSW registration plates.
The car, the program said, was similar in shape to a car witnesses placed at the
scene of Daniel's abduction.
Around the same time, a man was seen watching children at a nearby primary school
from a similar car.
An unidentified woman, named on the program as Jenny, was shown a photograph of the
named pedophile when he was a teenager.
"That same ... that same," she said, indicating facial features, "and those bloody
eyes!"
She said the man was "quite possibly" the same man she had seen near the school, but
she was unclear of the date she saw him.
The man named in the program was arrested by police six weeks later and jailed over
the rape of a nine-year-old girl in the 1990s. He is due for release early next
year.
The policeman in charge of the investigation, Chief Superintendent Mike Condon,
would not comment on suggestions the named man was a person of interest.
But Daniel's father, Bruce Morcombe, said the program's allegations were "a
reasonable scenario".
"He was on the Sunshine Coast over the length of the weekend and this clearly
includes the Sunday (Daniel went missing) and our understanding is there is a
possibility that he had opportunity in the middle of the afternoon that perhaps
places him at the scene, or close by," he said.
Daniel's mother, Denise Morcombe, said the family needed answers.
"I hope to God that it's not (the man) that did it, hearing about different things
that he has done in the past," she said.
"If it is (the man), and anyone's got some information that can prosecute this man,
please come forward. If it's not him, please come forward with any new information."
Ms Morcombe said that while the private $750,000 reward expired at midnight, the
$250,000 police reward would still be available for information leading to a
conviction.